Friday, August 21, 2015

I am really looking forward to sharing Cora's baby room pictures with you all! But first, this is something I shared with the Moms and Tots ladies today, and is on my heart...Jeremiah 29:13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.I don't know about you guys, but for me, this summer was a whirlwind. I don't think I was able to focus on anything clearly. A baby in June and not getting much sleep, the days were filled to the brim and left me exhausted. Don't get me wrong, this summer has been so fun, filled with lots of laughs and play dates and family time. But, do you ever feel like you can't think straight because you've got so many different things you want to be able to devote all of your attention to? I feel like my thoughts end up resembling that of the "If you give a mouse a cookie" book. One thing leads to the next, and to the next, and to the next, until you realize you're back at the beginning again. The Lord has been teaching me lots over the summer, and for that I am so thankful. The amount of grace extended to me has been amazing, and I'm so glad it never ceases. Today, He's trying to teach me to seek Him with an undivided heart. It's not bad to have a to-do list and busy days... but when our heart focuses on the list instead of on Christ, then He only has a piece of our heart - and before we know it, our friendship is suffering. A verse that I think lays out very simply how we can apply seeking the Lord with all of our heart is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. "Rejoice always,pray continually,give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." Rejoice, pray, give thanks. That's where I'm starting. If I have a rough day, I will be looking for that part I can rejoice in. I will be praying for Christ's will, and I will be giving thanks for all that He has done for me.

Now, onto Cora's room.

Grant and I have been on a tight budget...maybe I'll post about that in the future :) But, because of the budget, I had to get a bit creative with Cora's room. I just finished putting items up in it this past week, and I love how it turned out! Before you see the giraffes in every corner, maybe I should tell you that when I was little I had a pretend HERD of giraffes. My mom reminds all the time of how she would have to wait in the check-out line for me to gather up my giraffes before we could head home. She also tells the sad tale of how I lost the whole herd of giraffes in the moving van on the way to Pennsylvania. Truth be told, I only remember the slumber parties I would have with Cortney where I would get her to play giraffes with me. Anyways, because of this herd of mine, I have grown up always loving giraffes. And I completely intend to bestow this love of giraffes upon my daughter... And so... Here is her room :)

The giraffe lamp was on clearance for $10 at Gordmans. It was pink, but I have a slight aversion to pink (not to be confused with coral, which I LOVE, so I painted it blue. The jar was from Michaels for about $5 using coupons. I keep her headbands in it. I made the quilt. And I painted the giraffe painting... I actually painted a set, you will see in the next pictures. I am in love with how they turned out. The picture frames were a 50 cent garage sale purchase that I painted. The C was a couple dollars at Michaels. And the curtains were sheet set from Walmart for $10. I made curtains out of the straight sheet, and I still have a fitted sheet and pillowcase for the twin bed that will eventually make its way into this room!

The diaper changing table could still use some work with nicer baskets down below... but for now this will do. I painted the changing table that I had for the boys white. The yellow table that you can only see a part of was a purchase off of Facebook swap from Jen Subra that I spray painted. The giraffe on the table was yet another clearance giraffe from Gordmans that was brown and orange but I repainted to match her room. The mirror was 50 cents from a 141 garage sale. And the picture with Cora's birth date/height/weight is something that I designed, and used scrap fabric as a mat around it.

Here are the other two giraffe paintings that I did. Also, the rolling blue cart was $30 from ikea that I bought on our trip last February and I LOVE it. Right now it just has some books in the bottom of it, and some burp clothes in the metal basket up top. (But Grant wants one for his tools in the garage, and I wouldn't mind one for cleaning supplies that I can wheel around the house... so we may need to get another one...or two) The glider was a hand-me-down from Grant's mom - and it is so comfy for rocking my babes in the night.

The giraffes in the blue frame are just pieces of scrap fabric that I cut out and taped onto white paper. I love how it turned out. The giraffe coat rack was a purchase from our church garage sale that we did back in 2011 to raise money for our Africa trip, and I believe I paid $15 for it! I've been holding onto it these past four years in hopes of decorating a room with giraffes one day... and now I finally have!

So, that's her room - and I'm pretty excited about how it turned out :)

Heard Around the House

Mom and dad came over for a fire, and brought along some popcorn to snack on. Mom asked Rhett if he would like some popcorn and he promptly replied "I am a dinosaur. Dinosaurs don't eat popcorn." I guess that leaves more for me!

Whenever Rhett sees a sliver of the moon he calls in a "taco moon"

Case has started to sing quite a bit, but he doesn't say many words yet, so when he sings it sounds like he's saying "taco, taco, taco" on repeat. Not sure what it is with my boys and tacos :)

When loading the kids up into the van I looked around and didn't see Rhett so I called his name and and found him laying on the ground looking under the van. He popped right up, put a hand on his hip, gave me a proud smile and said "It's okay. I checked the engine. We are good to go."

Thursday, August 6, 2015

The past couple of weeks Cora has started showing off her smile. I love seeing those precious baby smiles!

This makes me think back to when Case first started smiling as well. It is one of the greatest moments with your baby, and the Lord knew I needed the reassurance of a smile the day that Case first showed his off.

When Case was 6 weeks old he had a little cold. The doctor told us to keep an eye on it and bring him in again if he got worse. A couple days later I hadn't seen any improvement so I scheduled a doctors appointment. As that day went on he got progressively worse. By the time we were sitting in the doctors office I could tell he was having trouble breathing. Before I knew it the doctor was calling an ambulance to transport Case to the hospital.

We spent the next week in the hospital battling RSV. While at the hospital we also learned that Case had a heart condition called SVT (which he has now outgrown!). We weren't able to hold him and I wasn't able to nurse him for a couple days. It was a long week that worries a mommies heart, but Grant and I felt the Lord's presence during it as well that was able to calm us.

On one of our last days in the hospital Case was becoming more alert and we were able to hold him again. While holding him he started showing off his smile. And it wasn't just one little grin here and there, which is how I think most babes start off when they smile. Not Case. He smiled nonstop. One of those huge, just can't contain it, smiles. It felt like a sure sign of God's grace. He knew that his smile was just the thing to calm my heart.

2 Corinthians 12:9

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me